District celebrates end of Kenilworth Ave. project

The District government held a celebration today marking the end of the $34 million reconstruction of Kenilworth Avenue (295) in the vicinity of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue. I'm sure many of the thousands of drivers who use that major commuter route already have held their own, private celebrations, though there's another project just getting started at the Eastern Avenue Bridge.

But first things first: The District Department of Transportation rebuilding of the roadway between Foote Street and Lane Place and the replacement of the bridges over N.H. Burroughs Avenue and Watts Branch Creek, which began in April 2007, is now done.

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who has been launching or celebrating a bunch of transportation projects lately, said this in his prepared remarks: "We are in the midst of a tremendous period of road and bridge construction here in the District, work that will greatly improve our infrastructure across the city. This completed project is an excellent example of that effort and residents and motorists in this corridor are already reaping the benefits."

There certainly are a lot of projects getting underway right now, especially on the eastern side of the District: New York Avenue, the 11th Street Bridges, Pennsylvania Avenue SE reconstruction and that Eastern Avenue Bridge reconstruction, among others.

In case you're driving too fast now to notice, this is what the Kenilworth Avenue project involved:
-- Widening of the roadway. That included improvement of the shoulders and the realignment of the N.H. Burroughs Avenue intersection with Kenilworth Terrace and the Kenilworth Avenue ramps.
-- Resurfacing of the adjacent service roads and construction of two new signalized intersections on N.H. Burroughs Avenue.
-- Replacement of the Kenilworth Avenue bridge over N.H. Burroughs Avenue with a two-span steel superstructure.
-- Replacement of the avenue's bridge over Watts Branch, the ramp to N.H. Burroughs Avenue and the ramp to southbound Kenilworth Avenue southbound.
-- Installation of new utilities, including storm water collectors, and decorative street lighting, new intersection signals and relocated water mains.

295/Kenilworth Avenue in D.C. has been under a constant state of renovation for at least the past twenty years although nothing ever seems to change. I get the impression that D.C. DOT is getting all this money from the Feds that they don't know what to do with so they just keep repaving Kenilworth.